Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Global Demand for Coal Skyrocketing

The coal plants in India's pipeline -- almost 100 more than China is preparing to build -- would deliver 519,396 megawatts of installed generating capacity. That is only slightly less than pending new capacity in China, which remains the undisputed king of coal consumption.

...The research found 1,231 new coal plants with a total installed capacity of more than 1.4 million MW proposed worldwide. Beyond the biggest users -- China, India and the United States -- the assessment finds a heavy coal demand building up in Russia, Vietnam, Turkey and South Africa.

...According to the WRI analysis, more than 34,000 MW of coal capacity is slated to come online in Vietnam, 30,000 MW in Turkey, and 22,000 MW in South Africa.

China, which has been on a coal binge for the past 15 years, still has the largest pipeline in the world in terms of megawatts. The WRI assessment notes that China's 12th five-year plan approved 16 giant coal-power bases, mainly in northern provinces and close to mining fields.

...Catelin of the World Coal Association argued that so far this century, half the world's incremental primary energy needs have been met by coal. _Scientific American _ via _ GWPF

While US President Obama's EPA is working behind the scenes with faux environmental groups such as the Sierra Club to shut down the building of new, clean coal power plants, the rest of the world's appetite for coal is growing to binge level.

This means that US coal exports are likely to continue growing.

Thinking persons will not take long to realise that the carbon hysteric energy starvationist tactics of the Obama EPA and global faux environmental groups -- no matter how well intended -- will not reduce the global burning of oil, coal, or other hydrocarbons. They are merely shifting the location from areas where the energy would be burned cleanly -- the advanced world -- to areas where the hydrocarbons will contribute the maximum pollution to the Earth's atmosphere.

Considering the unspoken subtext of the faux environmental movement, such an achievement may well amount to a big "mission accomplished."